Updated 6:15 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021 with comments from state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman
Fear that the Republican-controlled General Assembly will slash the school’s state funding is, at least in part, driving Penn State’s decision not to require COVID-19 vaccinations for students and employees, university President Eric Barron acknowledged in a letter to the university community on Thursday night.
After citing “division and controversy” over mask and vaccine mandates, Barron wrote what critics have said for months was holding Penn State back from requiring the shot for the fall semester.
“Public universities, in particular, have challenges with the mode of response to the pandemic,” he wrote. “Regulations across the country clearly reflect state-level political realities. State funding of our University requires a two-thirds vote of the Pennsylvania legislature, meaning that our funding relies on strong bipartisan support.”
For 2021-22, state appropriations account for 11.1% of the university’s general funds budget and 4.2% of its total operating budget.
The state Senate’s top Republican, President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, of Benner Township, told StateCollege.com that he would not threaten the university’s appropriation because of a vaccine mandate, but that there may be others in the state legislature who would.
“I certainly wouldn’t threaten their appropriation because their appropriation goes to the students,” Corman, a Penn State alumnus, said. “Penn State could survive without it but then tuition would go up dramatically. I’ve never put anything on their state appropriation. I’ve always tried to improve it. So they wouldn’t get that from me. Having said that, would there be some in Harrisburg that would take this as an opportunity? Sure. Would it reach a critical mass? I don’t know.
“I support [Barron’s] position right now. I think he’s doing the best he can. As he put in his letter, no matter which way you go, someone is going to oppose you. It seems like this is fairly divided. I think he’s trying to put the best health and safety measures in place.”
It’s not the first time a university official has said politics are playing a role in Penn State’s COVID-19 response. At a Faculty Senate meeting in June, according to WPSU, Provost Nick Jones responded to a question about other schools requiring vaccines by saying “Every one of those universities operates in a different state and in a different political environment.”
“These are all important considerations,” he added. “I know it’s easy to dismiss those as being just political, but we do in Pennsylvania and at Penn State operate in an environment that we have to consider carefully before going down a path.”
More than 700 colleges and universities — including eight of 14 Big Ten schools — are requiring students and/or employees to get the vaccine, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday denied a request by eight Indiana University students to block the school’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
Penn State’s concern isn’t without basis. In June, Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed Republican-sponsored legislation that would have barred Pennsylvania colleges and universities that accept any money from the commonwealth from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations.
Corman said the state-related universities — Penn State, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln, none of whom are requiring vaccinations — were not in the Senate version of the bill, but were added by the House. Because Penn State wasn’t requiring vaccinations anyway, he said, he did not oppose it.
“[The state-relateds are] sort of caught between public and private,” Corman said. “I support any private institution or private business to make decisions that they need to make as far as vaccinations go… Certainly if you’re private you have that ability. When you’re public that’s different and to deny access to someone over this issue is a tougher call in a public setting. I think that’s where the rub comes.”
Barron’s letter noted that within the university community and around the country, there is opposition to vaccine and mask mandates. A recent Quinnipiac University national poll found that 49% oppose COVID-19 vaccine requirements and 48% support them.
He pointed to an online petition, which has garnered 2,356 signatures, opposing Penn State decision to require masks inside university buildings as well as “resistance campaigns” against a vaccine mandate.
While noting “many faculty members at Penn State supported the masking requirement and are also calling for a vaccine mandate,” he did not mention the letter signed by 2,817 faculty, staff, students and community members in support of those calls. The Coalition for a Just University held a rally on Friday afternoon outside Old Main to deliver the letter to Barron.
The Faculty Senate, University Park Undergraduate Association and State College Borough Council have been among those formally calling on Penn State to enact a vaccine mandate. On Friday, the Faculty Senate passed by a 109-57 margin a vote of no confidence in the university’s fall COVID-19 plan. A separate vote of 128-32 urged the university to take stronger action.
“The focus of the controversy is on the means by which we achieve health and safety,” Barron wrote. “Our actions at Penn State are designed to achieve the desired outcome, with as little polarization as possible. Our objective is progress and results.”
The university is looking to accomplish that by encouraging vaccinations and making them easily available, masking policies and testing.
Barron said earlier this month that while COVID vaccines are not currently required, “Penn State is not impartial when it comes to getting vaccinated,” and urged anyone who is able to get vaccinated to do so as soon as possible.
Students who have not submitted proof of vaccination will be required to be tested upon arrival next week and then weekly through the fall semester until they do. Employees who have not shown proof of vaccination also will be required to get tested.
For students, failure to comply with testing requirements will result in sanctions, up to suspension, Barron wrote. Policies for unvaccinated employees who refuse to get tested are still to be released.
The university also has offered incentives for getting vaccinated, including weekly prize drawings.
Even that has drawn the ire of at least one Republican state legislator. In an opinion piece on his website in June titled “‘Woke’ Penn State has gone too far,” state Sen. Mike Regan conflated a Faculty Senate decision to remove some gendered terms from course descriptions and the vaccination incentives as “coddling and bribing” students.
“As a State Senator, it is difficult for me to be sympathetic to the University’s yearly budget requests for millions of your tax dollars, supposedly aimed at helping keep tuition down for students, when they are handing out cash incentives and doing exactly what they claim to be against – segregating and labeling using ‘classist’ terms such as ‘vaccinated’ and ‘unvaccinated,’” Regan wrote.
Barron, meanwhile, wrote that the combined measures “should help create a safe environment to fulfill our mission at Penn State. But we are more than capable of taking stronger action, much like last year when we rapidly pivoted to regulate gatherings and moved to remote status as demanded by circumstances.”
Through Thursday, 73.5% of students who will be living in residence halls have uploaded proof of COVID-19 vaccination, he wrote, and more are expected to do so. About a quarter of undergraduate students at University Park live on campus.
About 69% of academic personnel have submitted proof of vaccination “and unfortunately there has been little growth in academic uploads since early July,” Barron wrote, although survey data suggests the vaccination rate is actually higher.
Final results of a voluntary survey found that 88% of University Park respondents and 73% of Commonwealth Campus respondents reported being fully or partially vaccinated.
“Although the data are promising and indicate that our deliberate, three-pronged efforts are making strong progress, we will continue to be vigilant — and we will take further steps if necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on our campuses,” Barron wrote. “We developed processes, protocols and policies through the pandemic that enable us to pivot successfully when we need to impose greater restrictions, and to relax restrictions as we make progress.”
